Wrongful Death Damages Lawyer in Austin, TX Losses, Dependents and Claim Terms

One verdict, separate shares

Section 71.010 lets the jury award damages in an amount proportionate to the injury resulting from the death, then divides that award in the shares the jury finds among the individuals entitled to recover who are alive at that time. The practical effect is that a spouse, a minor child, an adult child and a parent each stand on their own proof. Age, dependency, the shape of the relationship and what the household actually lost are examined separately. A single settlement figure still has to be broken into those parts before anyone can say what it means for an individual family member.

The relatives Texas leaves out

Because section 71.004 makes the action the exclusive property of a spouse, children and parents, everyone else is outside it. Siblings are the most common surprise, and grandchildren and grandparents are in the same position. Under subsection (b) one qualifying relative may bring the action for the benefit of all. Subsection (c) then directs the executor or administrator to bring it where none of them has done so within three calendar months of the death, unless all of them ask otherwise. A relative outside the statutory list may still matter as a witness, and may still be an heir for the separate estate claim under section 71.021, but they are not a wrongful death beneficiary.

Exemplary damages, and an argument that is not settled

Section 71.009 allows exemplary as well as actual damages where the death was caused by a willful act or omission or by gross negligence. Article XVI, section 26 of the state constitution states the same right in older language. It runs to the surviving husband, widow, or heirs of the body, without regard to any criminal case. Section 41.008(b) then caps exemplary damages at the greater of $200,000, or twice the economic damages plus any noneconomic damages the jury found, with that second component capped at $750,000. Whether a constitutional right can be limited by a statutory cap in a death case has been argued for decades. The honest answer is that Texas courts have not adopted it. One court of appeals declined to hold the cap unconstitutional and noted that another court had approved applying it in wrongful death actions. In a 2005 gross negligence death case the Supreme Court of Texas resolved the appeal on the evidence, leaving untouched the court of appeals holding that the cap was not unconstitutional as applied.

How the cap is now calculated

A 2026 opinion of the Supreme Court of Texas tightened the arithmetic. The cap is measured defendant by defendant, comparing the exemplary award against the economic damages attributable to that defendant's conduct based on its percentage of responsibility, not against the total economic damages awarded against everyone. In a case with a trucking company, a driver and a maintenance contractor, that holding can move the ceiling substantially, which is why responsibility percentages are not just a liability question.

When the defendant is a government

Section 101.023 caps liability for death or bodily injury at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence against a municipality and against the state, and at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence against a unit of local government that is not a municipality. Notice comes first, though. Austin's charter demands written notice, verified by affidavit, within forty-five days, and section 101.101 expressly ratifies a charter period while setting six months as the default elsewhere. Section 101.056 also keeps discretionary decisions outside the chapter, which limits what a road design or a policy choice can support.

The deadline, and the narrow ways it bends

An action for injury resulting in death is generally due within two years, and the clock starts on the death itself rather than on the day a report or a chart arrives. The tolling provisions are narrow. Section 16.001 excludes time spent under a legal disability, section 16.062 suspends an applicable period for twelve months after a death until a representative qualifies, and a public defendant's notice period can expire long before either of them matters. None of these is a reason to assume there is spare time.

What a fee agreement has to disclose

No Texas rule caps the percentage taken from a death recovery. Rule 1.04 prohibits an unconscionable fee, lists eight factors for measuring reasonableness including the fee customarily charged locally for similar work, and requires a contingent agreement to be written, signed, and specific about the separate percentages for settlement, trial and appeal. It must also say which expenses are deducted and whether they come off before or after the percentage is applied. Since section 71.010 divides the recovery into shares, that percentage lands on each share rather than on one undivided sum.